


She's safe there, cradled in your arms

by Grimm (TroupeMasterGrimm)



Category: Hollow Knight (Video Game)
Genre: (btw that mental breakdown is coming during chapter 4), (kind of? second chapter/end first chapter?), (probably), (this fic is actually going to get pretty dark later, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Canon, Some characters that are normally dead are still alive, Trauma, be warned.), depersonalisation, theres not nearly enough godnet content out there.
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-09-17 17:39:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16978986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TroupeMasterGrimm/pseuds/Grimm
Summary: God Tamer finds a young lady dressed in red out in Kingdom's Edge after finally leaving her title behind to pursue her wish to explore Hallownest.Little does she know that she is holding the daughter of the King in her arms.





	1. Snowfall

**Author's Note:**

> Obligatory Godnet fic because there's no content for this ship on here so I'm gonna make it myself.
> 
> Also I swear I'm still gonna work on Cats and Wolves, I'm having a huge writer's block on that right now so I'm doing a different fandom for now to get it out

Little fragments of white fell from the sky, fluttering down towards the ground, laying on the rocky surface. They glimmered softly in the light coming from up above, some of the particles landing in the acidic water below, dissolving quickly.

The beasts of Kingdom's Edge had come to a certain calm, though she did not know for how long it would last. Surely, something would go wrong sooner or later.

One of the few creatures still active was a Primal Aspid, giving off a typical noise as it flew by. Surprisingly, it did not attack her on sight. Was it afraid? Or did it simply lose its urge to fight everything ever since? She couldn't really find an answer to that right now.

Why'd she even come here?

Her expression perplexed as she tried to remember what drove her to come here. Minutes ago, she was calmly wandering with her siblings and their friend, but when they found a spot to take a rest, she insisted she'd pursue the path further ahead of them without a break.

Now she was standing on one of the many platforms inside the area, contemplating why she wanted to go ahead in the first place. She was not growing old, but her memory was still in decline.

Unable to remember why, she decided to simply visit an old place and an old friend to grief for a while. She doesn't come here often anymore, so why miss the opportunity? After all, she was uncertain of when she would return here again, so better now than much later.

She typically visited other locations to mourn the loss of this person – unsure if death had claimed them or not. The palace grounds vanished, and even though Ghost sometimes talked (or moreso, signed) about visiting that place in a dream world once, the real one remains lost, and so does he.

Despite all the wrongs that have been committed, Hornet could not bring herself to despise him as much as many would suspect her to. On the contrary, actually. He made mistakes, like any other bug. He did what he could to save his people, even if his methods were often wrong and in many cases desperate. Still, she did not hate him.

Climbing up the ledges with ease, she traversed to the location she'd last fought the little ghost. They had proven strong enough to carry this land's fate, and Hornet's decision to let them pass did not cause her regret. The opposite – she was delighted by the results.

However, in the final fight between the two of them, and process of events that followed, the place she sometimes considered a grave had collapsed, nearly killing Ghost. Now, whenever she visited, she had to stay outside and farther away from her destination as to not endanger herself.

It was abnormally cold this day, but she paid no attention to it. Finding a relaxing space, she sat down, watching the large structure before her. It inflicted her with a calm she hadn't felt in a long time.

Perhaps one day, it would be alright again. Perhaps one day, the family may reunite as a whole, as far as it is still possible, with the many deaths that have occurred over the felt ages that have ruled over this place.

She wished she had brought a flower.

\---

She rarely wandered outside of the Colosseum. Being the champion of the fools required near constant presence, but there's recently been a major issue with the structure ever since that little vessel had wandered in and fought with her. A brave little soul, and a fair fighter. While others described those orbs as empty to her, she saw it – the fighting spirit the tiny creature had as it stood in front of her.

Her memories had been clearing since a few weeks ago. Many of those years she's spent fighting here, since her very childhood, had faded away with the surge of the infection slowly reaching out to this place. With it, she forgot things as something spoke to her in her head and she felt herself slowly slipping, though she gripped onto whatever sanity she had left after all this time.

But when the little one came in and killed her beast in battle, her thoughts suddenly cleared up. She herself never showed any signs of infection, no pustules, no bubbles, nothing. But her beast was overcome with it.

She'd never noticed, as it was subtle at first. When the disease finally began showing, mostly underneath the creature's shell, her thoughts had already begun getting overturned with that voice, and she didn't see it, as if they never existed.

The death of her companion acted as a sever between that voice and her, and while she still mourns her friend, she is grateful for the freedom the little ghost had granted her. She felt relieved of a burden, and all those weird things clouding her mind were gone.

However, she never got a chance to properly thank the little guy. She was severely injured at the end of the battle, and when she finally awoke, they had already left to pursue their goal.

Perhaps she would give up her title and finally travel like she'd wanted to for a long time. However, she was forced to become champion and defend that title instead, even many years after he died. His corpse still sits tall, watching over the Colosseum. 

It hadn't come to mind to think about leaving for a long time, but she thought it was time to finally give up her post. She'd been fighting in there for so much longer than she could tell, and she had grown weary of it. Surely some change would do her good.

Her opponent seemed much more confident now that she no longer had her beast beside her. A fool, really. Even without a companion, she was easily strong enough to take them on.

With one quick strike, her challenger fell to the ground, blood dripping onto the floor as they were pierced by her spear.

She simply turned and left, not even bothering with the cheer of the many fools sitting there and watching.

She realized. It was time to leave.

\---

She'd never really seen much of outside the Colosseum, but was astonished by how pretty it was – she wished she'd left much earlier. There was so much to see – many have told her how vast Hallownest is and how different it all looked. It was breathtaking.

For the first time in forever, she felt happy.

She slowly walked through the caverns, taking in her surrounds, in complete awe at the simple beauty surrounding her. She'd been trapped in that dull place for so long that even the structure of the boulders amazed her. She couldn't believe what she'd been missing out on.

When she decided to leave, it was quietly, without anyone finding out about it. She left with no more than her weapon and a small sack with supplies.

She sighed, making her way out of the caverns and into the open space that corpses were typically dropped down from the Colosseum of Fools. Bodies were still falling – even with the infection gone, the battles were bloody and the body count was high. You could almost think it was raining corpses.

The heavy snowfall was a surprise for her. She never felt like it was very cold in the Colosseum, so it confused her a bit. However, she decided to not think of it too much and just accept it. She did not know where it came from or why it was so cold- only that it was here now.

She wandered carefully, as it was easy to fall off a broken ledge and to your doom. The acid lake far below was bubbling loudly, though it was distant.

With an uncertain feeling, she began climbing some of the many ledges, a bit fearful that they may break off and drop her to her death. However, they held quite well, and luckily the creatures were calmer than they used to be, not bothering her at all.

As she reached the peak of the path she'd been climbing, she noticed how it got even more freezing than before. Her armor really wasn't made for this type of weather.

With swift movements, she passed through the area, though it began getting windy.

There was a large but destroyed encampment at the one end of her path, with only a bench and very torn shelter remaining, amongst a few long-dead corpses and other nowadays unusable items scattered around. It was a sad sight, really.

The other end proved far more interesting. The way got steep but still passable, up until a certain area where you were forced to drop down. She softly landed on several platforms, making sure to be careful and not drop down too far.

As she looked back to where she came from, she noticed what a height she'd just come from. The wind was howling loudly now, and she could barely hear anything other than it. She turned back, noticing the large corpse laying nearby, covered by much of the snow and ash this place had. She slowly began approaching it, the snowfall bothering her just a little.

As she closed in, she noticed something odd – the snow in front of the body had a weird shape, different from what you would probably get when it falls onto a flat surface, almost as if-

Her action process got ahead of her thoughts, rushing over, throwing her bag and spear to the side and feverishly beginning to dig, unearthing a body.

It was ice cold, but alive, though probably not for much longer anymore had she not found it. The young lady was covered in snow, shivering. She may have been surprised by the sudden snowstorm or perhaps she passed out-

“Can you hear me?” God Tamer finally spoke, slowly pulling her out of the mound, trying to get a response from her, but she remained still, shaking.

A groan toned from the other as she began moving more rationally, coughing and hacking aggressively, throat likely frozen or filled with snow, or both. After a few more moments, she looked up at the bug in red armor who saved her from dying a cold and disdainful death. 

God Tamer asked her question once more, and received a weak “Mhm...” as a response. The stranger made no effort to escape her grasp, likely too weak to just get up and run away.

“Who are you?” she asked the small lady in red. She began trying to speak, but got out no more than “H..Ho...” before falling silent again. God Tamer panicked, thinking she'd lost her for real this time, but upon checking her breathing, she noticed that she was still alive. However, she turned unresponsive again, and God Tamer assumed she passed back out.

Picking up the lady carefully, she walked over to her bag and spear, putting them on her back, before leaving the area.

\---

Hornet shot up, looking around. Her surroundings were warm, but kind of dark. Where was she?

The last thing she recalled was sitting in front of a snowy grave, a loud noise, and then- nothing.

Wait, there was a slight glimmer of another memory...

There was a bug in red armor. She had been saved by someone.

With a lot of confusion and dizziness, she managed to rise from her sleeping place, staggering to her feet as she moved much faster than her body wanted to allow.

A figure sat beside the makeshift bed she had been lying on. She watched as they snored softly, antennae twitching calmly in their sleep, likely due to dreams.

It took her a few more moments until she realized that whoever was sitting there was her savior. If not for them, she would have surely frozen to death out there, since neither Ghost nor Hollow nor Quirrel knew where she went.

Oh, they must be so worried.

But Hornet couldn't just leave this stranger like this, without even thanking them. She looked torn, eyes shifting from the figure to the entrance of the small cavern they were hidden in. Outside you could hear the loud stomping of Great Hoppers and the soft buzzing of Primal Aspids. A cold wind blew in, but the chilliness quickly dissipated into nothingness as the warmth of the cave consumed it.

It was decided. Hornet sat back down on the makeshift bed consisting of mostly torn pieces of cloth, as well as a patchwork blanket with a couple of holes. It was not something she was used to, but it was better than nothing. Softly wrapping the blanket around herself, she watched the stranger.

She began dozing off, until she noticed the figure move. They did not wake, but began shaking softly instead. Hm. They must freeze more easily than her. However she was used to temperatures like this, though she could not tell if the opposite applied for this person.

She shuffled closer to the person, who she caught herself thinking of as cute, but quickly trying to banish that thought – it was too late now. Although she couldn't see much of the bug herself, she found the wiggling of the antennae particularly adoring. Sighing softly, she wrapped part of the blanket around the other, easing the shaking and causing it to stop completely eventually. She smiled.

It took a while for the stranger to wake up, and Hornet had nearly fallen back asleep had it not been for the sudden movement she hadn't expected. Her eyes shifted over, subduing a yawn. The other seemed taken aback by her, and she tilted her head softly.

“Hello,” she said, staring at the other. “Did you save me?”

The nervous ant took several moments before saying anything. “Y-Yes,” she, as Hornet noticed, answered, looking away anxiously.

“Thank you,” she smiled at the bug in red armor. She rubbed the back of her helmet in reply. “I am Hornet. May I know your name as well?”

“God Tamer.”

“That's your name?”

“Well...” God Tamer trailed off, looking away. “It's the title I was given by the fellows up in the Colosseum. I don't remember my actual name.”

Hornet looked at her with surprise. “You don't remember? Have people not called you by your own name?”

God Tamer looked at the ground. “Not in a long, long time.” she replied, shaking her head. She seemed upset now.

Hornet frowned. She was unsure of what to say, causing a wave of awkward silence between the two of them.

“You mentioned the Colosseum... weren't you the champion there?”

God Tamer looked up, nodding. “Until I left, at least.”

“A friend of mine mentioned fighting you. They praised you for how strong you were in battle, though they seemed upset at something that happened...” Hornet's gaze shifted to the spear God Tamer had been carrying.

“And who might they be?”

“A vessel. Little guy, running around with an old nail, weaverlings and all sorts of other companions. They said you're tough,” she smiled.

God Tamer's eyes widened, though not visible.

Hornet got up. “Well... I think I should go looking for them – they're probably really worried about me. Have you perhaps found my needle?”

The ant nodded, handing the other one her weapon. She seemed lost in thought.

Hornet headed towards the exit, but nearly collapsed again when she reached it. God Tamer rushed over to her, catching her. She pulled her up to her feet, which earned her a “thank you” from the small lady. God Tamer felt a knot of discomfort forming in her stomach. Was she still that exhausted from earlier? Would she be okay when traveling home alone? What if something attacked her?

“May I come with you?” The words formed in her mouth before she could even notice that they did, causing her spurt out “Just to make sure that you will be safe,” as an add-on to it. Hornet blinked, looking at God Tamer. After a pause that made the ant believe she embarrassed herself in front of the other, she nodded, without another response. God Tamer looked delighted, quickly grabbing her stuff from the cavern, picking up the makeshift bed that was likely her own. She then followed after Hornet hurriedly, walking outside.

The light of the outside was blinding in comparison to the one they had in the cave, forcing both God Tamer and Hornet to squint their eyes in an attempt to see better. No help that the ground was covered in snow, almost knee-high, which reflected the shine strongly. The temperature dropped within seconds.

As they began moving forward, the closer they got to the acid lake, the easier it was to progress, as if it caused the snow to melt more easily. For a while they climbed there, God Tamer being extra careful and always moving behind Hornet, just in case she may fall off one of the platforms, as to be able to catch her. Not long after, they reached the current peak, from which they could not get any higher unless they took a different route. Hornet instead moved on towards a place God Tamer had never been to, but often heard stories of how gorgeous it was – the City of Tears.

They quickly moved through the extremely treacherous cave leading to the long-forgotten King's Station, filled with Belflies that would explode on contact. 'One of the few still aggressive creatures out here,' Hornet remarked, though God Tamer had trouble paying attention. She felt as if something was creeping up behind them and she did not like it. Something was... just wrong.

Lost in thought, God Tamer almost stumbled off a ledge, though luckily the fall would have not harmed her, even if she fell – the ground was flooded so she would have landed in water in this case.

There was unsettling laughter behind them, and before she could even realize what was happening, God Tamer felt something hit the back of her head, causing her to fall to her knees and then the ground. She tried holding onto consciousness, but the only thing she saw before passing out was a creature, pitch-black, with two sets of arms and glowing white eyes, smack Hornet over the head in the same manner, causing her to fall as well, before being picked up. An inky, sticky, gooey substance touched her as she felt herself being carried away, finally falling unconscious.


	2. Trapped in their jars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 is about half as long as chapter 1, so hopefully chapter 3 catches back up on the word count.

She felt as if she'd gotten drunk on one of those festivals that used to occur in the Colosseum when the King was still around, her head was pounding and she barely dared opening her eyes. She'd no memories of what happened last, no more than of Hornet and their climb through Kingdom's Edge. She'd been out cold, and her dream world was haunted by a ghastly, insane being. It was laughing wildly, manically... and it followed her wherever she went, attempting to trap her in a-

Oh.

The cold surface of her prison made her slowly realize where she was. She began grabbing for her spear or her bag, finding them nowhere, and all her hand touched was the smooth and slippery surface of... glass.

She shot up, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling of the trap she was caught in. Looking around, her suspicions were confirmed – she was trapped inside of a jar. It seemed unnaturally strong, as hammering against it with full force was not a helpful option. God Tamer sunk back into her previous position, staring out of the clear glass.

There were several other jars not far from her own, a variety of creatures trapped inside of them. They ranged from harmless vengeflies to primal aspids to things she'd never seen before. One that caught her attention was the one that reminded her of the little vessel she'd met during her battle, just taller and with a different shape of horns. That one seemed to be asleep, or at least resting. Had it given up on getting out of here? How long has it been here? What happened to it? How did it get trapped here?

Her gaze shifted from the vessel to another jar containing-- Hornet. She was at the other end of the large room, trapped inside the glass prison. God Tamer had to catch her attention, but the glass was too isolating to be able to hear a noise from far away.

After some minutes of contemplating, she got up as far as it was possible, and violently pushed against the jar, causing it to fall over onto its side, making it much easier to roll. She slowly moved towards Hornet, who seemed to still be out cold, making sure to not make too much noise, as to not wake or alert their captor.

She softly bumped into Hornet's jar, which was right next to the one of that vessel, causing her to accidentally hit that one as well. Both Hornet and the vessel shifted in their jars, looking at God Tamer. Words did not help the situation – the glass was soundproof, so talking was not an option. God Tamer noticed that both of them had been striped off their weapons as well--

She motioned for Hornet to look at the vessel, and vice-versa. When both of them looked back at her after looking at each other, she pointed upwards to where the room's door supposedly was located. The vessel began signing something, but it was too complex for God Tamer to understand. Hornet did not seem to have those problems.

She looked at God Tamer, and pointed upwards to where their weapons were- they were lying on a shelf hanging on the wall. Perhaps they could roll against it and make the weapons fall down? Then those could pierce the glass from the outside so that they could flee. It looked like the shelf itself was sturdy enough to hold out a couple of knocks against the wall it was hung up on, so that should pose no problem.

God Tamer looked back at Hornet, giving her a nod, who then turned around to the vessel and signed them something that she herself could not understand.

She just hoped this wouldn't wake their captor and bring them here. That thing was... creepy.

\---

After several tries, the weapons actually fell off, two of them missing, but the third one, Hornet's needle, piercing the vessel's jar. For a moment, God Tamer worried that they would just leave, as they walked a bit, but it turned out that they only meant to pick up their nail, quickly smashing the other two jars that she and Hornet were trapped in.

The shattering of the glass was a nice change of pace, as there was no sounds up until now due to the soundproofness of the jar. God Tamer rose up, picking up her weapon, which had the bag she was carrying bound around it. Hornet also grabbed her needle and thread. Finally, the three looked at each other.

“So what now?” God Tamer quietly asked. Hornet looked around.

“First, we need to get out of here before that thing comes back. But by the sound of it-”

You could loudly hear squishy footsteps in the distance.

“-we'll have to hide for the moment. If that thing finds us and catches us, there's no getting out again. It wouldn't make the same mistake twice,”

God Tamer hummed. She scanned the area quickly for a hiding spot, finding a couple of large pillows in a sort of back room – the perfect place to hide.

“We can hide there,” she murmured, looking back at Hornet and the vessel, receiving a nod from the former. They rushed over to the pillows, hurriedly crawling underneath them and moving them so that they looked natural, or at least how they thought it would. Their hideout was kind of stuffy and it was hard to breathe, but it was only a makeshift solution for these few minutes, so they simply had to wait it out.

Something rustled and a door squeaked open, the footsteps quite loud now, accompanied by constant giggling. It walked around the room for a while, closing in on their location, and distancing itself from there again – then it turned around and left. As the door shut, Hornet let out a sigh of relief.

God Tamer slowly shuffled out of the pillow pile, looking around carefully. Not making mistakes was crucial right now.

Quietly, the three snuck out to where the creature had presumeably left to – the next room of this hellish place.

They made their descent in complete silence, hoping to reduce their noise as much as they could, as they crept up to the room the being was inside – with every step they took, the laughter got louder, and more unnerving. What was that thing?

Hornet stopped the other two as they reached the door. She looked around the corner, watching the creature imprison another aspid in a jar. Just what was it trying to achieve? God Tamer couldn't wrap her head around it, and nothing really made sense – she only knew how excited she was for finally leaving this hellhole.

It left behind an imprint of goop on the floor as it walked, and Hornet, God Tamer and the vessel quickly and quietly pushed themselves up against the wall behind them, in hopes of the creature not noticing them as it passed by to bring the jar into the room they'd just come from.

As it walked past and disappeared into the doorway, they hurriedly rushed through the even larger room, down the corridors, until they finally reached a door. It was locked, but they managed to pick the lock with Hornet's needle, running outside. They didn't stop until they reached the stag station in King's Station, taking a breather.

God Tamer sighed. She really hoped they wouldn't get into anymore trouble until Hornet got home.

…Though she has been much enjoying spending time with her.

Hornet smiled, thanking the vessel for their help, before asking their name. The three-horned vessel replied in signs- “Brokey?”- she received a nod in reply.

They seemed lonely.

Hornet asked if they had anywhere to go, to which they replied with “no”, followed by “no home”. Her expression formed into one of sadness upon seeing the signs, before lighting up. “Would you like to come with us then?” she inquired, looking at Brokey. They seemed lost in thought for a bit, before responding with a nod. Hornet smiled.

“Alright, then let's call the stag and get out of here. Don't want to spend any longer in a place where that thing could possibly get us.”

With that, the smaller bug rang the bell, followed by loud stomping noises approaching. God Tamer had heard of the stags, though she'd never seen one herself. They were not allowed in the colosseum due to their size, and there were no stag stations in Kingdom's Edge.

The creature itself was majestic, though visibly old. It looked at the three and said something that God Tamer didn't quite catch as she was lost in thought. However she got up when Hornet motioned for the other two to walk over and get onto the stag. Apparently there was something blocking the way to the stations in both Dirtmouth, Hornet's home, as well as the crossroads and Greenpath, meaning they'd have to travel the rest of the way their own.

Hornet thought that Resting Grounds was the easiest way – while true, they were missing a tram pass and thus could not use the tram, the path over the Blue Lake was just as simple – even if they got a bit wet (though a bit is an understatement).

God Tamer relaxed, seated next to Hornet, giving out another relieved sigh.

Well, at least she was going to see a lot more of Hallownest in one day than she had originally planned.


	3. Shells

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for how late this chapter is, I had it finished for a few weeks but I wasn't motivated enough to continue chapter 4 and didn't want to publish chapter 3 without at least a bit of chapter 4 being done.

The lake was still, and God Tamer stared out across it, trying to find the other end. Her gaze shifted, turning upon the water, watching her own reflection. This look, it confused her a little. She'd not seen herself in years, and her form was not like she remembered at all. She believed to understand more about what she was and how she acted, but this picture proved her wrong. 

She stared at that figure, and it felt wrong. Like it wasn't her. She no longer saw that little excited ant she used to know, and neither that powerful woman people have told her she'd grown into. No, it looked nothing like that. She resembled an empty shell. She didn't see herself in there. Or joy. Or love. Or emotions. Or anything, really. It was like a husk.

She wondered if this was what the colosseum had made her become. A lifeless corpse of a once lively person, incapable of love or any of those feelings, and she questioned if that was true about herself. She never felt remorse or pain killing her opponents in battle, nor did she take pride in all the heads she's made roll on the floor, nor did affection for another ever strike her. The colosseum's rules did not allow such things. Getting attached to another bug would only cause trouble, and attachment could end in betrayal and ruin. Or at least that's what she was always taught.

The longer she considered, the more the shell resembled her in her own mind. And with every heartbeat she felt closer to being as empty as that figure staring back at her from the clear reflection that was shaking ever so softly with the lake.

A pebble fell into the water, ripping God Tamer out of her thoughts. She looked up, turning her head to Hornet, who kicked the stone into the water. The latter tilted her head with concern and confusion.

“Everything okay?”

The words sounded like an echo in her head, and she took several moments to register that she needed to answer. That black void of a past would not consume her again so soon- or she at least hoped that it would not.

“Yes.”

The answer was firm and quick, and Hornet could immediately tell that even if there was something wrong, she would not be able to get God Tamer to talk about it. For now, they had to move on, reach Dirtmouth.

“Then let's go,” she hummed, lightly plopping down into the water. God Tamer quickly followed suit, though Brokey took a bit to follow, nervous of the substance they were about to dive into. Gripping onto all the bravery they had, they also took a jump into the lake, quickly remarking they did not like how cold it was as soon as they were able to sign something. They looked very displeased with the situation.

The cave was so calm that there wasn't even a single Vengefly buzzing inside the caverns, and the only noise filling the eerie silence was the occasional droplet of water falling back into the lake, as well as the waves softly pushing on the two shores. The tint of blue felt especially relaxing. For just a moment, God Tamer forgot all the things that had just been running through her mind.

But the distinct lack of creatures normally populating the cavern was unsettling. Such a large space, providing everything a bug could hope for – yet completely empty.

Hornet remarked that she wanted to leave as quickly as possible – the silence was causing her to freak out. God Tamer couldn't disagree with that. Brokey, on the other hand, seemed kind of indifferent about it.

They reached the other shore without any further incidents, and left the cavern to enter the Forgotten Crossroads. God Tamer felt a sense of relief as she got away from that lake that'd just imprinted itself with a bad memory on her, but Hornet immediately stopped them as they stood on the ledge overlooking the Crossroads.

You could still see some of the withered strands and vines of infection, long become ineffective. The corpses had already rotted away and the life had returned to normal, right?

Well, from the look on Hornet's face, the opposite of that was the case.

“Salubra isn't here. Something's up.” Upon mentioning Salubra, she pointed down to the house emitting with a pinkish glow with her needle, and then looked into the distance, as if trying to scan the area for anything that could have gone wrong.

Her search turned up nothing, and she carefully jumped down to the platform below them. God Tamer and Brokey followed suit.

The emptiness of the roads was threatening. Hornet knew that these caverns were always filled with life, even during the time of the infection. What had happened? Where had all these creatures gone to?

She felt sick to the stomach. Something was so very wrong, it made her want to throw up. It reeked of death in the air, but there were no corpses to be found, as if they all just magically disappeared into nothingness.

“Come on, let's go. Maybe we'll get some answers up in Dirtmouth.”

She led the group, jumping up the path quickly, though the shadows made her uncomfortable. She was panicking internally, thinking over and over again how maybe something happened to her siblings, what if they are dead, and how it would be her fault if anything happened-

Her attention became minimal and she became prone to mistakes. She'd just finished climbing the last of the platforms normally leading to the grubs and their father, or to Dirtmouth via the other path, hurriedly following the path to Dirtmouth. However, when she climbed towards the end of the route and the beginning of the well, where light would typically fall down from into the caverns below, lighting them up, she found none, and their escape had become blocked with rocks, leaving them unable to enter the old town. It scared her, the thought of home being so close to reach and yet so far, and the large heap of rocks left her no choice but to turn around and leave to find another way home. 

She did not pay attention to her movement as a hundred thoughts crossed her mind in the very same moment, and the last thing she remembers is the shouts from her friend as fell down the large cavern leading deeper into the crossroads, followed by a loud thud and darkness.


	4. Trauma

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TWs for attempted suicide and implied child & sexual abuse in this chapter//

 

Her head was pounding and her heart was beating in her ears, drowning out any other noise she could've possibly taken in in this moment. She felt extreme pain rooted in one of her horns, running down all the way to the middle of her face. She also felt something odd on the surface of her mask.

 

The blanket below her kept her warm (slightly), but the warmth didn't make the pain stop and understanding what happened wasn't any easier. Last thing she remembered was God Tamer screaming her name as she fell down somewhere- then nothing.  
  
Groaning, she slowly opened her eyes, gaze falling upon the patchwork blanket she'd seen before. With a slow push, she got herself lifted up enough to slowly take in her surroundings. She quickly fell back down to her resting spot as her energy did not last enough to hold her up for long. She sighed, eyes falling shut again, in an attempt to catch rest, but to no avail, as the pain in her face was too much.  
  
Carefully, she moved one hand to the left side of her head, feeling the soft surface of a... bandage? It was definitely a makeshift bandage, as it didn't feel as smooth as the ones she remembers, but it seemed to do its job.  
  
A faint noise toned in the background, and Hornet turned her gaze to look upon the source of the voice. She blurrily saw the red as it approached, before her eyes slowly adjusted back to seeing the world as it is, and recognized the ant as God Tamer, though she did not wear her helmet right now. Her bright eyes stood out from her very dark reddish face, and if it wasn't for the fact that she probably just woke up from a coma (considering God Tamer's expression) and her head was killing her, she would've told her how beautiful her face was.

 

Frankly, words didn't form in her mouth, and instead she just let out some intelligible noises that even she herself could not make sense of. God Tamer's face read both relief and worry, and the ant sat down beside her bed, which seemed to be slightly elevated. The evergreen plants in Greenpath were quite the contrast to her red.  
  
She was pretty sure God Tamer asked her a question, but it was drowned out by the static she kept hearing as her head hurt, and she simply shook her head in reply. God Tamer seemed confused by her response, and looked over at Brokey, who had sat down beside her. Hornet's incapability to speak as of right now made the situation a lot more complicated, but at least most of her other motor functions were fine, so she just began signing Brokey something along the lines of “My head hurts... What did she ask?”, awaiting an answer. She'd gotten extremely used to sign language as it was the only way to communicate with Hollow and Ghost, as they couldn't speak, like all vessels.

 

She received “How are you?” as a reply. Sleepily, she raised her hand again, forming the words “Exhausted and in immense pain. Also confused.”. God Tamer quite evidently didn't understand any of the conversation, but seemed to trust that Brokey would alert her if something really bad was going on. Hornet quickly added a question before Brokey could reply with another one. “How long was I out?” Brokey looked over to God Tamer, before back at Hornet. “No specific time frame, but it was at least two weeks.”

 

She huffed, looking at God Tamer, who stared back at her with fear. The ant turned her face to Brokey, probably asking them to ask something for her, as they followed up with a question. “Do you need anything? Are you hungry?” Hornet shook her head in reply, closing her eyes slightly before opening them again. “Where are we?”

 

“Greenpath, Hornet.” Brokey then lowered their hand for a few moments, looking at God Tamer, then back at her. “We will be back later. Rest up well.” With that, they turned to the ant, signing “rest” to her, which she seemed to understand by now, before getting up and walking out of the makeshift home the two seemed to have been working on.  
  
Hornet laid her head down on the moss attempting to replace a pillow, sighing and slowly closing her eyes, letting the dark consume her vision. She felt at peace, even though the static in her mind was still bothering her, but she just hoped that it would stop once she fell back asleep.  
  
\---

 

Her helmet rested near her pillow, or at least the thing she'd been using as a pillow. She never really slept more than a couple of hours in the Colosseum, her job didn't allow that. She watched her surroundings, but all the noise from outside was drowned out by her spoken thoughts, the voice in her head – not like the light's, but not quite her own either. It was like some distorted version of herself, compromised of her doubts, regrets and failures. It loved picking on her.  
  
She grabbed the blanket and laid down underneath it, trying to shut her eyes and turn off that constant back-chatter she was receiving, though the latter was nearly impossible.

 

God Tamer had barely eaten or slept over the past days, her stomach not allowing her to consume anything, as whenever she wanted to try, her body would become so upset at the idea that she could barely hold in her vomit. She did not know of what it was supposed to come, considering the fact that she'd not taken anything in, so how could something come out?  
  
She shook her head, ignoring her thoughts. She felt sick with worry and so many degrading words filled her mind when she thought of herself and what happened with Hornet, and what she could have done.  
  
Yet she still hid what she felt.

 

Yet she still had no clue who Hornet really was, beyond her name and association with the vessels. God Tamer had heard stories of the vessel and it's purpose, though she'd never met one herself before that little ghost. She wondered how Hornet was related to those vessels. Perhaps she could ask Brokey, but they could not reply to her with anything but sign language, which she was having enough trouble understanding as it is.  
  
Her eyes began feeling heavier than normal, and slowly her mind was drifting, like a star in the sky. She rested her head on the pillow, sighing deeply, the creatures of Greenpath falling silent with the night engulfing the world.

 

Her dreams weren't going to be pleasant.

 

\---  
  
She ran, further and further, into this dark abyss leading her path, away from the grasping hands of the one who made her like this. She would run as long as her legs could carry her, away from him, away from her past, away from everything, even herself.

 

He ruined her, made her this empty shell, this remnant of that once happy but stupid child, excitable at everything.  
  
She halted abruptly as she saw that cliff again, the one imprinted in her memory as if it was yesterday, her shadow of a past self sitting at the edge, legs dangling just past it. That uncertain stare – 'was this right?' - her soft breathing – 'don't make a noise.' - the fear in her gaze – 'they won't find you.' - the tight grip on the edge, ready to push – 'do it.' - one final gulp – 'no more fear.' - eyes snapped shut.  
  
She threw herself of the damned cliff, she felt all those emotions from that day once more, that hopefulness of a quick end to her story, her twisted fate, directed by her predecessor's arms, by his disgusting being. She had hoped so much, yet life wouldn't give her the satisfaction, let her go, move on to the next one. The fall wasn't brutal enough to break her neck or make her bleed out, no, it only broke several of her bones and cracked her skull.  
  
Days later, she woke back up in the Colosseum, not long after that, she was back on her feet, defending her title as champion.

 

She snapped her head away from the scene of this likeness of her jumping, and ran away into the darkness again. Wherever she went, those disgusting noises followed her, the cracks, the laughs, the... other things. She began crying, she wanted it to stop, to shut it up, to end already. Everywhere she went, she saw him, and she cried even louder, crying out for anyone to help her.

 

She still felt the touches, the strokes, as if it was still happening, as if it never ended. The hits, they were still covering her body, the words, they were still ringing in her head, those eyes, they were still watching her, that voice still cooed her as she cried, reducing it to only whimpering.

 

She wanted it to stop following her.

 

She wanted to disappear.

 

She wanted to run and hide.

 

She stood before the ledge, leading down further into the abyss. She saw the monsters behind her, and her only way out was to jump.

 

So she did.

 

\---  
  
She snapped her eyes open at the feeling of someone touching her shoulder, turning her head. Her gaze fell upon Hornet, who had taken off her bandages, showing the small cracks underneath her eyes. She wanted to comment on that, but she instead remained silent.  
  
“What are you doing out here?” Hornet whispered, worry showing in her stare. As God Tamer retorted with a questioning look, not fully aware of her situation yet, Hornet continued. “You were standing alone at this ledge, looking like you were about to jump. You were _crying._ What is going on?”  
  
She felt guilty at the fear she caused Hornet with her actions, though she was not sure how she winded up here after she'd been resting in her bed. Did she sleepwalk?  
  
God Tamer plopped to the ground. Hornet sat down next to her.  
  
“Talk to me.”  
  
Her voice was firm but God Tamer could see in her eyes that she was about to start crying. God Tamer didn't want that. She avoided making eye contact with her, instead looking over towards the bubbling acidic water near the area they were sitting on, a greenish glow emitting from it.  
  
She inhaled deeply before even daring to speak, her voice was going to still be shaky from all the panic and tears her nightmares have caused her and she didn't want to appear weak in front of Hornet.  
  
“I-I...”  
  
She was tearing up again. Fuck. She quickly rubbed her eyes to try and hide the liquid gathering in her eyes, but it did not matter, as Hornet had already noticed.  
  
“You...?” She patiently waited for God Tamer to continue her sentence.  
  
“I-I saw... h-him--” God Tamer tried to explain, but immediately broke out into tears again as she thought of _him_. She sobbed and couldn't stop, no amount of trying was able to stop her from crying, and she wished that all of this never happened and that she'd never been born right now.

 

Her mind couldn't take it, every thought felt like too much, she made a fool of herself, in front of  **her** , and she kept trying to hit against her head to stop the pain, but the input from her brain never reached her motor functions because it was too overwhelming, as thoughts overlapped, like several trams hitting one another, it felt like she was drowning, like she was stuck in a cave with no exit, and it just filled more and more with water until she couldn't breathe anymore and--

 

She felt Hornet grab her and pull her into an embrace, warmth spreading on her normally cold body. There were no spoken words between the two of them, just understanding silence. At first, she was taken aback and didn't know how to respond, her brain having decided to just completely shut down all thought processes. Think of it like a machine rebooting – that was how she felt right now. After some moments, she was able to think kind of properly again, and found that the correct response to this gesture was to wrap her arms around her.  
  
She felt at peace, in this tranquil scenery of grass and flowers, sitting with the only person she found that cared about her at this very moment. There was no one prying about her past, her title, anything related to that life. It was... like a fresh start.

 

The two sat in silence for a while, until Hornet noticed that blood was running down God Tamer's left arm – God Tamer knew the wound did not stem from there, but she could easily write it off as a scar from battle that had reopened accidentally. Nonetheless, Hornet slowly swiped the blood away.  
  
God Tamer had calmed down, no longer crying anymore, and breathed slowly and deeply to keep herself grounded after that. Even after breaking up the embrace, they sat close together, watching the acid lake stretching out over the area in front of them. Hornet leaned against God Tamer's arm as she was smaller than her, sighing peacefully. God Tamer, on the other hand, felt butterflies form in her stomach, and though she did her best not to act like she did, Hornet seemed to have noticed anyways, looking at her with a playful gaze, probably grinning underneath her mask, before turning her stare back towards the lake, watching the bubbles form on the surface of it. Her companion ended up doing the same.  
  
After around an hour, she got up, stretching her hand out to God Tamer to help her up. “Let's go back. Brokey is probably worried about us.” She snickered slightly as she pulled God Tamer up, but instead of letting of her hand, she simply intertwined their fingers. God Tamer didn't say anything, and instead simply followed her as the two walked back, together.

 


	5. Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ warning for implied child & sexual abuse in this chapter// ]

God Tamer woke up, realizing that Hornet was resting her head on her shoulder, still sleeping. She did not want to wake her, so she decided to just stay in place, though it might stay like this for a while. The creatures of Greenpath were slowly waking, soon buzzing loudly- Hornet just slept through the noise. How did she do that?

God Tamer only had vague memories of what happened, but her dreams were warm and soft, though she couldn't recall exactly what she dreamt of. She took a calm breath, enjoying the noises of her surroundings, letting out a long sigh.

She looked over at Hornet again. Perhaps it was time to come clean? Tell her what really happened to her? The thought was dreadful, and she immediately tried forgetting about it. She preferred the clean slate, to forget whatever happened to her in the past, so she may never have to deal with that again-

A motion next to her snapped her back to reality, and she looked over to Hornet turning her face towards her, yawning. She hummed something, getting up and stretching. “Good morning,” she murmured, dusting herself off. God Tamer stood next to her, returning the greeting, watching one of the Mosscreeps scurry away. She turned her head back to Hornet, who looked at her with a concerned expression. “Everything okay?” she asked quietly. God Tamer turned her gaze back to the ground, unsure of what to answer. No, nothing was really okay, especially not herself ever since then--

A hand brushed her arm, causing her to look back up, eyes meeting with Hornet's. “It's okay if you don't want to talk about it right now.” God Tamer was thankful for that notion, as she was most certain she would not be able to. She simply nodded, not responding any further.

\---

The day passed without any prying from either of her two companions, much to God Tamer's relief. She tried to ignore those thoughts that kept creeping up in her mind and did so quite well, until night was breaking in. Hornet and Brokey seemed to tire more easily than her (though that may just come from her fighting in the colosseum day and night with little to no breaks), which is why the two of them were already asleep when she was still too awake to sleep.

She sat in the same room that the other two were resting in, stirring in the drink she had yet to finish with a makeshift straw. Her reflection glared back at her with that empty stare, and she stirred harder to make it go away. She was hearing voices again, but they were quieter, so she only heard the odd whispers. She took a deep breath, stopping herself from continuing the stirring motion, slowly and quietly getting up.

God Tamer left their provisional home to gaze upon those beautiful acid lakes again – they shone brightly even when Greenpath's creatures went to rest and this serene scenery became dark, illuminating the area around them just enough to be able to see the flowers blossoming at the cliffs.

She sat down, trying to find a calm, but the voices began growing louder, throwing words at her that she didn't want to hear anymore, and she began seeing things flash before her eyes, scary things of the past, most prominently his face, and she wanted him to go away.

None of this would have ever happened if she had just been an obedient child, they would have never forcefully given her away, but because she was the wild child she had been back then, the people running the orphanage gave her away, saying that her talents “would be more welcome there” and that “everything would be fine” and that she was “going to settle in well and quickly”, but none of that ever happened. Not with him around, not with all the others who would always pick on her and laugh at her and tell her she wouldn't make it far in the Colosseum because she was a girl.

As alone as she was, she didn't care that she was crying, sobbing loudly, nobody would hear if she was far enough away from the others. She grasped her head, the voices drowning out even the loud bubbling from the acidic lake, her vision started getting blurry and she was beginning to shake violently. It was not cold, it was panic that caused this. It was so dark she could barely see past the illuminated area around the lake, and she knew he was dead, she saw it herself, but even then, she was scared that it was all lies and fake and that he'd return to take her back.

She didn't know how long she was sitting there already, when she heard footsteps in the distance. At first she assumed it was one of the creatures of Greenpath having woken up and seeking a different place to rest, but as they approached her and kept getting louder, she was convinced that it was not that.

Her head snapped around, eyes red from crying, tears still running down her face, sniffling softly. She watched the figure that came fall to her knees, wrapping her arms around God Tamer's neck and gently pulling her in for a hug. Her vision was too blurry from all the tears to properly recognize whoever this was, but after a few moments she heard a voice which she was familiar with. “What are you doing out here this late?” She sleepily asked, not letting the ant go.

She felt it was finally time to talk about her past, as she couldn't get any more upset than she had already been just moments ago, and she thought it may become better if she had someone to tell about it.

She took a shaky, deep breath, opening her mouth, before taking several more, because she was trying to get her voice steady. Hornet waited patiently for her to answer, not letting go.

“W-When I was at the Colosseum of Fools, t-there was this m-man... The King of F-Fools. He was the one r-running the Colosseum. H-He always overlooked every single b-battle, and he-he did... t-terrible t-things to m-me-”

 

She broke out into sobs again, attempting to say bits and pieces of her memories in between them. Her gaze as she spoke told Hornet more than her words, continuing to comfort the ant as best as she could. It did not even matter to her that most of the sentences were not sentences, she simply listened and hoped God Tamer would feel just the tiniest bit better after letting it all out.

After a while of loose words of her past, she stopped, and Hornet waited for a moment to see if she needed to speak any more, but when no words followed, she softly cupped God Tamer's face to look at hers, wiping away any of the tears that were still rolling down her face.

She whispered words of comfort, brushing her cheek, trying to ease the pain God Tamer was feeling even just a little bit. God Tamer didn't speak, but she seemed to appreciate it a lot, the sympathy may not have fixed any of those issues that started in the past, but soothed and distracted her from them.

For once in a long time, she didn't feel as empty anymore, and was even growing hopeful of taking back what she was robbed of in her childhood.

After some time, the two got up, Hornet softly grabbing God Tamer's hand, leading her back home.

Before they left the lake, God Tamer turned back to look at her reflection, and for just a moment, she could've sworn it looked more lively than before. Whether or not it was the truth did not matter to her – it gave her hope that this shell she was now could still be fixed, even if not completely on her own.


End file.
